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Michael Lester

Originally from Scotland, Michael was a freelance video editor before joining TPM in the summer of 2011. He lives in New York with his wife and two cats and is a lifelong fan of The World Famous Dundee United.

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Michael

After President Obama expressed frustration at a Tuesday news conference about the ongoing debate over the budget and debt ceiling, Fox News host Neil Cavuto brought on a gold company executive to reassure viewers that everything would be OK.

Craig Smith, the chairman of gold sellers Swiss America, told viewers that the President's warnings that the economy could be thrown into turmoil if Congress refuses to raise the nation's debt ceiling were vastly overblown.

"It just amazes me," said Smith. "We are not going to default on the debt."

Smith said Obama needs to be reassuring the markets rather than warning of dire consequences.

"And, yet, the president, as you said, throws fuel on the fire. He uses words like hostage, extortion, extremists, radical. He is talking about an economy that would be thrown off the cliff. It's not going to happen, Neil."

The interview came after Cavuto introduced his Tuesday show with segments of Obama's speech warning of the harms of default, mixed with soundbites from other Democrats, all sountracked by ominous music.

"Passing that debt ceiling does not mean you default," Cavuto said. The result of not raising the debt ceiling, he said, would mean that the government would "not paying interest to U.S. bondholders. That's it."